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Special teams key for Cats

Kansas State cornerback Emmanuel Lamur (23) blocks a field goal attempt by Massachusetts kicker Caleb Violette during the first half of action Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, in Manhattan. The Wildcats won the game 21-17.

MANHATTAN -- If you've ever launched a tee shot into the trees, you can sympathize with Kansas State kicker Josh Cherry.

"He aimed it right, he stroked it right, and it went right," coach Bill Snyder said, referring to Cherry's 39-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide right. "It went exactly where he was aiming."

Cherry's miss was one of several special teams miscues that came back to bite K-State in Saturday's 21-17 win over Massachusetts. Even more costly were a fumbled return and a blocked punt, both of which resulted in easy touchdowns for the Minutemen.

Needless to say, special teams have been a topic of discussion around the Vanier Football Complex this week.

"We've been over a lot of special teams already, probably every single unit," punter Ryan Doerr said Tuesday. "We already practiced it last night, and we're going to go out again and practice it today. We're just looking get a lot better than our performance last game."

Special teams were the pride and joy of former coach Ron Prince, who now gets to focus on them exclusively at Virginia. K-State's special teams units didn't show the same polish Saturday, but Snyder said the issues are easily corrected.

"We had three mental mistakes -- two on the punt that got blocked and one on the punt that we dropped," Snyder said. "... The young guys that make the mistakes don't intentionally do that. It's just that their thoughts get away from them and they lose sight of exactly what their responsibilities are in a brief moment of time.

"I think the mental aspect of it is so very, very correctable, and they're very aware of it right now."

The most egregious breakdown occurred when Doerr dropped back to punt early in the fourth quarter. He rolled to his right to attempt a rugby-style kick, which was summarily blocked by UMass' Jeremy Horne and returned for a touchdown.

"They had a lot of pressure coming from the outside," Doerr said. "We decided we wanted to try to get outside the pocket and try a rugby (kick) to try to slow down some of the pressure. We just missed a couple assignments and the guy came straight through."

The Wildcats are using a punt formation that puts a three-man shield between Doerr and the line of scrimmage. The other blockers are split wider on the line of scrimmage, which Doerr said allows for better punt coverage downfield.

"When we have that shield in front of me and (blockers) kind of spread out, we can get a lot better coverage lanes down the field," Doerr said. "I believe it will help us be able to pin people deeper and help us out with better field position."

The new formation is one of several minor changes instituted with Snyder in charge. K-State also eliminated the position of special teams coordinator after Jeff Rodgers departed for the NFL, leaving special teams instruction up to various assistant coaches.

"All the coaches kind of work together," Doerr said. "There's always more than one coach that does special teams with us, so I can't really say who does what. They all definitely work as a unit to help make us better."

It should be noted that the Wildcats blocked two kicks of their own Saturday -- a field goal deflected by the long arms of Emmanuel Lamur and a punt tipped by safety Chris Carney. That gives K-State 35 blocked kicks since 2002, which ranks among the top five nationally.

Collectively, though, Doerr said improvement must be made before the Wildcats travel to Louisiana on Saturday.

"Right now I don't feel like we're where we need to be," Doerr said. "We had a lot of assignment errors last game, and we're going to do everything we can to get 'em better."